


What If He Lived?

by InterNutter



Category: Church (Short Film 2019)
Genre: Adoptable Fic, Free to a Loving Home, Gen, I might expand on this later IDK, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 19:25:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19257637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterNutter/pseuds/InterNutter
Summary: What if the kid with the bottle was only assumed dead and exchanged for Tselah? What if the Intseh who got him managed to save him from the cusp of death?Free fragment of a fic to anyone who wants to run with this idea - share and enjoy. I blame the Church fandom Discord for all of this.





	What If He Lived?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Ideas not mine, video not mine, IP not entirely mine. Words mine, but I don't mind sharing, just give credits when used kthx.

There had been the arena, and a terror Lagenam had never known before in his life. There had been the demon, and its handlers beating it senseless. There had been magic... and a monster. More monstrous than his Pa. More monstrous than Pa's friends after long nights and strong ale.

There had been pain. There had been fading light. There had been words that Lagenam couldn't make out... Then a warmth and a feeling of love like he'd never known.

He breathed in. A gasp that took in sweet-smelling air and a hint of spices he didn't know. There were warm arms around him, clothed in... velvet? Lagenam opened his eyes, and was almost certain he'd gone to hell.

DEMONS! Demons everywhere! Just like the one who had killed-- no, but he was breathing.

The bottle was gone from his hands, for all the good it had done in the arena. He fled from the arms holding him, bolted away from them. Tried to find a corner to hide in...

_But there were no corners._

The demons weren't hurting him. They were just... standing in his way. Three or four of them, some bigger than the one in the arena. Plenty smaller. None his size. One of them, the one speaking strange words in a soft, singsong tone, gathered up something out of a container. Held it out. Lagenam snatched up something that looked like a weapon. Held it in shaking hands.

The demon with the thing split it open, and the smell of hot bread fair broke his heart. Not the kind of bread he was used to, cold and hard and snatched from Pa's plate when Pa was sleeping. No. Hot and fresh and mouth-wateringly lovely. Offered in the claws of a demon.

The demon continued to coo and singsong, crouching down _like his friend Enni did, trying to tame a wild kitten off the streets..._

They kept... not hurting him.

Lagenam snatched the smaller bit of bread out of the demon's hand, adding a wild swipe with the weapon to keep it at bay. _Sweet gods, this was the best food he'd ever known..._ and the demon simply stayed where it was and tore off another piece. Offering it with coos and singsongs, just like before.

It took five such pieces of bread and one alien fruit that tasted bittersweet for Lagenam to stop being so afraid of them. The Church had always said that hell was nothing like the kindnesses he had known in life.

Well. They weren't wrong about that.

**Author's Note:**

> Lagenam is Latin for 'bottle'. Since Toasty has said the Church speaks a 'latin-esque' language, I just rolled with that. Insert sad headcanon that this kid thinks his name IS 'bottle' because his abusive dad made him fetch bottles of ale for him as a wee one.
> 
> Aaah, the angst...


End file.
